Notes from Howard's Sabbatical from Working. The name comes from a 1998 lunch conversation. Someone asked if everything man knew was on the web. I answered "no" and off the top of my head said "Fidel Castro's favorite color". About every 6-12 months I've searched for this. It doesn't show up in the first 50 Google results (this blog is finally first for that search), AskJeeves says it's: red.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Obama's Nobel Is Unconstitutional?

"Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the Emolument Clause, clearly stipulates: 'And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.'"

It goes on to say that sitting presidents have won it before, but for their past actions, and that Obama's prize is different because "it is intended to affect future action".

"Second, the president has indicated that he will give the prize money to charity, but that does not solve his legal problem. Giving that $1.4 million to a charity could give him a deduction that would reduce his income taxes by $500,000 -- not a nominal amount. Moreover, the money is not his to give away. It belongs to the United States: a federal statute provides that if the president accepts a 'tangible or intangible present' for more than a minimal value from any foreign government, the gift 'shall become the property of the United States'."

5 comments:

Seems that the Justice Department should have plenty of time on its hands to look into this matter since they are clearly not going after the Bush-era Torture mavens or the Wall Street Banksters/Fraudsters.

I chalk it up to the same kind of academic exercise as whether McCain was allowed to be President because he wasn't born in the US. I think of course he was given the mitigating circumstances (which I won't list here) and assume because being that specific doesn't fit in a short constitution.

I'm not really up on how the Nobel prizes are awarded.Whether this is an attempt of a foregin body to influence US policy (and, by extension, an indication of Obama's propensity to be influenced) is perhaps an acedemic exercise, but it seems to make sense that if the award is largely based on his actions as president, the dispostition of the monatary award should be decided by congress.